KC-135 simulator facility unveiled

Fri, Aug 19th 2016 03:30 pm

By
Lauren Zaepfel

Tribune
Editor

Elected
officials and civic leaders gathered Tuesday morning at the Niagara Falls Air
Reserve Station to cut the ribbon for a new KC-135 flight simulator facility.
"This 11,250-square-foot facility is slated to house a state-of-the-art
simulator, which will have full-motion and visibility and provide a platform to
fulfill flight training at a lower cost," said Col. Brian Bowman, 914th Airlift
Wing commander, in a press release. "The site can host more than 450 students a
year and provide 18 full-time jobs. This building is complete and capable of
taking a simulator right away."

The
$5.2 million project coincides with the station's new KC-135 mission and is
home to classroom space and other meeting areas that would be used to teach
students while they train with the simulator.

Bowman
said the simulator, which has yet to arrive at the base, will look like a "big
box."

"When
you actually walk in that box, it's like you're walking in the cockpit of a
KC-135," he said. Students will partake in rigorous four-hour training sessions
as part of courses using the simulator and facility, which could take from two
weeks to two months.

Before
and after training in the simulator, students will be briefed on their mission
and later evaluated on their performance while in the simulator.

"Everything
they do is scrutinized - thousands of items in that four-hour block are
covered," Bowman said. "And that keeps them trained, keeps them proficient and
keeps them, obviously, safe for flying the airplane."

Using
screens and other equipment, students can fully train in the simulator and
eventually be "completely checked out as a mission-ready pilot without having
flown the actual aircraft," Bowman said.

He
noted, the simulator features a database with "every airfield known to man in
the entire world." The operators can become familiar with their surroundings in
areas throughout the world before actually physically being at their designated
location.

Lt.
Gov. Kathy Hochul supported bringing the facility to the base when serving in
Congress. As the KC-135 is the station's new mission, she said, "It makes sense
to have the simulator right here in Niagara Falls." Hochul said the
"state-of-the-art, one-of-a-kind, facility (is) ready to accept that mission.
So, we're ready."

After
the ceremony Tuesday, Bowman said, "I couldn't be more excited, obviously, that
this thing is really kicking off well. It's on schedule and I can't ask for
more than that."

As
for when the actual simulator would arrive, Bowman said, "We will get one of
them, I just don't know when."

Funding
for the facility was provided in the fiscal year 2013 budget. However, another
$25 million was allocated to transfer one of the Air Force's 19 KC-135
simulators to the station in the recent 2017 budget.

Hochul
said she, along with Rep. Brain Higgins and U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, among
others, have been "fighting" for this project to come to the base.

"We
have always been, it seems, at death's door," she said. "And something like
this brings back new life." Hochul said the investment made into creating the
facility is "a statement from our military that they're going to be continuing
investing in this region."